Chinese New Year

It was the Chinese New Year yesterday and Yolanda, Alia & I met Jon, Rob & Marta in chinatown for the celebrations. It was a great opertunnity to try out Jon & Rob's new cameras. (Lucky Bastards!)It was flippin' freezin' yesterday so we didn't hang about too long in chinatown. We wandered down to 3345 for a coffee and warmed up instead. Followed closely by a fry up at home and falling asleep on the sofa in front of the telly.

Oh, and it's the 'year of the dog' by the way! A friend tells me that could be true of every year for him but i thought it might get him in trouble with ex-girlfriends if i put his name. (So don't worry Declan your secret is safe with me!)

ACDC Tribute

Yannis and I went to the Cavern Club on saturday night to see an ACDC tribute band called "Touch too Much" as part of the Rock Extravaganza and it was a great laugh. We met Cedric there too and afterward we met up with Gavin and some others and went to the Krazyhouse. As always this too was great craic. I went home about 3am and left the others to it. Clearly getting sensible in my old age!

Brokeback Mountain

It was actually a bit of a struggle to get to see this film. It's proven so popular in FACT that it's been sold out all last week. So we didn't get to see it till Tuesday.
It's a good film, there's no doubt about that and it's two main protagonists do a great job. In particular, Heath Ledger, who was magnificent and is a definite nomination for an Oscar.
The cinematography in the movie is magnificent and makes great use of the breathtaking landscapes.
The bottom line here is that it has it's flaws, but I’m not going to get into all that right now. Go and see it and make up your own minds. Despite the flaws it is a great movie and will no doubt be seen by many as a milestone in cinema because of its subject matter.

Man-Utd 1 - Liverpool 0

Well… What can I say? Disappointed doesn’t quite sum it up…disgusted? Yes that it! I was disgusted with that moment of luck that Man Utd had against Liverpool, who dominated the game yet failed to score. I believe the technical term for a situation like this is ‘a travesty’.
The comments of Carlos Queiroz, United’s assistant coach after the match didn’t do anything to improve my mood. He claimed that they planned to give Liverpool the ‘apparent control of the game’ they would ‘find the right places to damage Liverpool’ and then claimed their ‘plan worked’ and they ‘deserved to win’. Rubbish!!!!
Liverpool dominated the game because they were the better side. They lost the game because they didn’t capitalise on the opportunities they had and Man Utd got lucky in the last minute.
I could go on but I won’t. Time to move on…

Jarhead

Last night I met with Jon in the FACT and we saw Jarhead. It's not your typical war movie, in fact there isn't an awful lot of combat in the film. It's a very personal view of the war from a man in the marines and his experience of the gulf war in the eighties.

The man in question is Anthony Swofford and the film is based on his book also titled Jarhead. I've not read the book so i can't comment on that, but the film I enjoyed.It's a slow paced movie and has moments of both humour and violence. There are some points that will make you think about the rights and wrongs of war, but mainly it's a film about a fairly normal guy trying to do his job that seems sometimes to be in over his head. Anyway...I liked it. And I'm sure that I'll watch it again sometime.

Meeting the Liverpool (Spanish) Team...

On tuesday night Yolanda & I along with Alia and Rachel went to the Holiday Inn Liverpool to be part of a small audience for a spanish national radio program.
The station is Cadena Ser and they are a national institution in Spain when it comes to all things sport.
They have organised the program because of the high Spanish contingent in the Liverpool camp. For the programme Rafa Benitez, Luis Garcia, Xabi Alonso, Fernando Morientes and Jose Reina attended. So there were a few photo opertunites to be had.

Setting up for the broadcast...

Yolanda & I with Rafa Benitez...
Rachel and Yolanda with Luis Garcia...
Rafa Benitez with Rachel and Yolanda...
Fernando Morientes with Yolanda and Rachel... Xabi Alonso with Yolanda and I...
Fernando Morientes with Alberto and I